NORTH MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WBTW) – A family in North Myrtle Beach reconnected with a long lost member this week after searching for 49 years and nine months.
Edmond Daniel is the father of Kelly O’Neal, and he said she was wrongfully taken away from him by her birth mother while he was away in the military. Kelly was only two years old at the time. “I never heard from them again,” said Daniel.
Daniel, his wife Blondie, and their family constantly searched for her because he said he never wanted to let her out of his life. Kelly is now 51 years old, and after connecting with her family through video chat, she and her husband, Ken, flew to North Myrtle Beach to see their family for the first time. Though she was nervous, she said everyone made her feel like she belonged.
“Our conversations were so easy,” said O’Neal. “It was like falling in line with an old friend that you were just touching base with, and then when I got here, it felt like I had come home.”
Daniel said the search for her began before internet and technology were easily accessible to the average person, which made it difficult in the beginning. He said they reached out to television shows like Oprah and Montell for help as well.
As years of searching went by, one of Kelly’s siblings, Tanya Daniel-Stanley, was able to track her down using the app, BeenVerified, along with Facebook. Daniel-Stanley said she eventually came across someone with the same birthday as her sister, except with a different last name. She said she reached out to people connected to that name until someone close to Kelly finally responded.
“He answered immediately,” said Daniel-Stanley. “He said, ‘with the information you’ve given me, it sounds like you’ve hit the nail on the head.’”
Daniel-Stanley said it was the middle of the night when she found her sister, but that didn’t stop them from talking to each other for hours on the phone.
“Her siblings relate to her as if they’ve known her all of her life because they really have,” said Daniel. “She’s been apart of our life, so now we have her in the flesh.”
“No one stopped looking for me,” said O’Neal. “To hear that and to hear those stories about that made me feel that I had always been there and I was always going to be there.”
Kelly and her husband, Ken, are in North Myrtle Beach visiting their family, but they will return back to Connecticut Wednesday evening. Now that the family has been reconnected, Daniel and his wife are planning a trip to Connecticut in March to meet their new grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
